


Penny's Worth

by Abby_Ebon



Category: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-12
Updated: 2014-07-12
Packaged: 2018-02-08 13:35:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1943097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abby_Ebon/pseuds/Abby_Ebon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moist calls upon Hourglass to help him set things right for Billy - and Penny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Penny's Worth

Hourglass sat across from Moist, who couldn't help but fidget a bit.

He could if asked, admit freely his discomfort in her presence, her gaze always looked like that haunting National Geographic's cover photo of the girl with blue eyes and the thousand-yard stare. Only her stare might be better called a thousand-year. She could look at anyone and know not only what they would do next – but all of what they _might_ do; she wasn't staring at you, but through into what you did in time, all times and all places, all maybes and might have been.

It was something very few people might be comfortable with knowing and seeing. The boy in Iowa who would be president wouldn't be one now.

"Did you bring it?" Hourglass asked, focusing on him and the here and now. Moist felt relief in her words, he wouldn't have to say a word to call her attention to himself.

"Yeah, it's right here." Moist bent to pat the bag that rested on his feet, black cloth that covered Dr. Horrible's fixed Death Ray, back to being a Freeze Ray once more. It hadn't been _easy_ to fix – Moist was no genius like the Doc, but he had managed from the Doc's notes and sketches – and the money Doc had robbed from the bank had helped too.

Moist was Dr. Horrible's henchman, it was a part of his lackey status to deal with accounts and that like. There had been a time when Doc had done his own figures, but these days he delegated most of what he didn't have to do to Moist. That was fine with Moist – it was something to do, something that took his mind off Doc's misery. The heart of him – his passion, his will and soul, it was gone, leaving the numb Dr. Horrible a genius puppet of Bad Horse and his League. It was sickening for Moist to see.

There was a reason he was Doc's henchman, and it had very little to do with his curse of making things soggy. He knew how to fix a mess, having made enough of them. It was why he was here, and why Hourglass had reached out to him, had told him there was hope if he fixed the Freeze Ray and brought it here tonight.

"Why do you want it?" Moist asked nervously, looking about the Chinese restaurant. It was nice, paper lanterns and red lights that cast everything into dim lightning. It felt secret enough for this meeting. Moist wasn't really supposed to be meeting Hourglass, she wasn't a henchperson as he'd let Doctor Horrible believe, she was a sidekick to a hero, but her hero just hadn't been born yet – so she was a little bit both, hero and villain.

"Why do you?" Moist knew she wasn't talking about the Freeze Ray; she was talking about fixing what had happened with the Doc. He swallowed, and thought about it, because when Hourglass asked something it was for a good reason. Why did he want Doc back? Moist was nothing without him, and Doc deserved to be happy.

Moist wasn't a fool, he knew that Doctor Horrible had changed that day that _she_ had died. Doc wouldn't even gloat a little bit about the so-called hero Captain Hammer seeing a doctor, a psychologist, yes, but not even a little laugh. And the evil laugh had always been important to him.

"To make him happy…." Moist muttered it, but Hourglass heard, and smiled vaguely.

"Isn't he happy?" She waved a hand about the restaurant, its dim red lighting like blood, like Doctor Horrible's new clothes. Moist thought about it, the money, the fame, the power. All of it had been what Doc had talked about _wanting_ , but he didn't seem to care now. He only did what Bad Horse told him, only followed in the Evil League of Evil's shadow.

"No." Moist was sure of that much.

"So you see, what you _want_ is not always what you _need_. What I need to make Dr. Horrible happy is his heart, he lost it with the girl – Penny – but we can return it with this – and the Wonderflonium." Hourglass smiled as she held up a canister. A canister much like the one that Doc had brought back from his heist, where Penny had met Captain Hammer…the 'hero' who had led to her death.

For the first time in a long time Moist felt the thrill of hope. He brought up the bag that held the Freeze Ray sitting on the table between them; she looked at it and shivered. Moist saw again the thousand-year stare and when she looked up to meet his eyes, he met them knowingly.

"You can see backwards as well as forewords, can't you?" Hourglass nodded with a swallow, and it was clear few people knew that about her. She looked like she wanted to keep it that way, and Moist wasn't about to blog about it.

"Yes, but I can not do anything about either without this." She tapped her finger upon the Wonderflonium's canister.

"Dangerous?" Moist asked, meaning everything they were about to do.

"Of course, but worth it….yes" With that, Moist could not argue – would not, even if Hourglass had had more to say on the subject.

"So, what do we do?" Hourglass clicked the canister into the Freeze Ray, like loading a gun, and held the Freeze Ray in her hands still, as she looked at him in thoughtful hesitation.

" _We_? You do not do anything. I will fix these things; you will remember none of what has gone wrong - as it should be." With those words and a thin, strained smile, Hourglass turned the Freeze Ray onto herself. Freezing the times she saw, backward and forward, a world's worth of choices – and from them she would pick and choose which came true and which would not.

\-----

Moist tried to phone Doctor Horrible once more – he had locked himself up in his lab, and he'd never done that before to Moist, locked him out of his life. Moist just knew something had gone very wrong in Doc's life – first the Evil League of Evil breathing down his neck and telling him to kill or be killed, and Captain Hammer helping out the homeless…there was something about it all that made Moist sick. He just knew that if he talked to Doc he could help.

"He's not answering." Moist looked to the other two – and Hourglass raised her brow, and Moist knew that was no excuse in her eyes. He kind of wanted to impress her, so he pressed in the numbers he'd memorized by heart again filled with renewed determination.

He tried again, and again – and this time, Doc answered.

"Hey?" Moist let out a relieved breath, noticing that Doc sounded nervous.

"Hey yourself, what is it?" Moist cleared his throat, running a hand through his slick hair.

"I was thinking, you don't need the Evil League of Evil, I've got a few people over, if you want...we could start our own group. No messy murders. What do you say?" Moist crossed his fingers, at Doctor Horrible's thoughtful silence.

"I was planning something, a Death Ray for Captain Hammer, he's giving a speech and she…" Moist heard the Doc struggle and knew that something had happened between Hammer and Horrible, something bad – worse then the usual beatings. It had to do with her.

"You can name it. We need you; it wouldn't be anything without you, Doctor Horrible. What do you say? You know Hammer's speeches are always stupid too, you can come over and make fun of him with us – it'd make you feel better, and she'll dump him eventually, they always do. He can't keep a girl, you know that." Moist closed his eyes tight and hoped.

"Yeah, alright, it sounds…good, I mean, better than what I had planned. See you soon." And Doc kept his word, and they watched Captain Hammer make a fool of himself, and Penny walk away from the stage, a sick look to her face.

Doctor Horrible couldn't stop smiling, because the next day would be laundry day and he planned to ask Penny if he, Billy – and his Allies of Change could help her and her Caring Hands out.


End file.
